Just six months after it was signed into law, Georgia’s heartbeat bill lost in federal court this week when District Judge Steve C. Jones blocked it from going into effect.
The law, which prohibits abortions in the state once a fetal heartbeat is detected, was set to take effect Jan. 1. Now it faces months — maybe even years — of further litigation. But pro-lifers shouldn’t count this as a loss. It’s a setback, nothing more. And it should not discourage Georgians from fighting for life.
Pragmatic skeptics were right to see this ruling coming. Jones wrote in his opinion that because the U.S. Supreme Court has “repeatedly and unequivocally” upheld Roe v. Wade, the state cannot infringe on a woman’s right to obtain an abortion before a fetus is “viable,” which according to Roe, is between 24 and 26 weeks of pregnancy.
“What is clearly defined, however, is that under no circumstances whatsoever may a state prohibit or ban abortions at any point prior to viability, no matter what interests the state asserts to support it,” Jones wrote, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “By banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, HB 481 prohibits women from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy at a point before viability.”
So what’s next? Georgia’s heartbeat bill will continue to make its way through the courts, and perhaps even reach the Supreme Court. As it does, pro-lifers should focus on what has made this movement influential: grassroots activism.
Progress has been incremental, but the culture is indeed changing. More than half of U.S. adults support restrictions to abortion access, though a majority agrees it should be legal “under certain circumstances,” according to a recent Gallup poll. More importantly, the overall abortion rate in the United States continues to decline. Over the past five years, abortion rates plummeted to an all-time low: there appear to be fewer women seeking abortions today than there were when abortion was still illegal. No matter how many pro-life bills find themselves blocked in court, these trends are stunning societal victories that should not be discounted.
And bills like Georgia’s are possible only because of these cultural changes. Politics is, after all, downstream from culture. As respect for the unborn grows in the hearts and minds of individuals, legislators feel more confident taking bold stands for life. This in turn encourages governments to act. We’ve seen this occur across the country in just the past year: Alabama, Ohio, Indiana, and 10 other states joined Georgia in passing pro-life laws restricting abortions. Tired of legislators who won’t listen, a handful of towns across the country have taken matters into their own hands and declared themselves sanctuary cities for the unborn.
We can and should debate the merits of these steps: Are bills like Georgia’s efficient? Why pass a law that will inevitably get tossed? These concerns are reasonable and perhaps even justified. But at the end of the day this debate is about one thing only: the killing of a child in the womb. Laws like Georgia’s might not be efficient, and they’ll inevitably face the court, but they allow us to exert pressure on a government that has been unwilling to listen and a public mind that only seldom hears abortion described for what it is.
So, pro-lifers: be bold. People need to see and hear you defending life as a matter of principle that goes beyond incremental legislative progress. Stand up and continue to speak the truth.
